Australian state sees waterbirds breeding at wetlands

Researchers have found vast numbers of waterbirds breeding at wetlands in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), despite extreme flooding events.

As part of the ongoing Eastern Australian Waterbird Survey, experts from the University of New South Wales are currently visiting to several wetlands in the Northern and Central Murray Darling Basin (MDB) monthly for a six month period ending in around April.

An initial aerial survey, led by Richard Kingsford, director of the university's Center for Ecosystem Science, showed that from October to November last year, up to 15,000 breeding pairs of Straw-necked Ibis, 300 breeding pairs of Royal Spoonbill and 3,500 breeding pairs of Pelicans were seen breeding at Gayini.

"With waterbird populations declining significantly along eastern Australia over the past decades, successful breeding events like at Booligal and other wetlands in the Basin are essential if we are to see a slow in this decline, as is ongoing monitoring," said the director.

Kate Brandis, senior research fellow of the center who is now undertaking monthly visits to those wetlands with her team, told Xinhua on Wednesday that flooding events are actually required by several waterbird species to breed.

"However this season's extreme floods, that are impacting humans and animals alike, saw large areas of nesting colonies in the MDB go underwater. Luckily, our researchers have confirmed that many chicks did managed to survive despite this," said Brandis.

In a brief summary of Australia's climate in the 2022 calendar year, the Bureau of Meteorology said that national rainfall was 25 percent above the 1961-1990 annual average, making 2022 the ninth-wettest year on record.

According to the briefing published last week, rainfall was very much above average for the south-eastern quarter of the mainland, where persistent rain saw significant flooding affecting large areas, multiple times during the year.